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Correction: An article Sunday about Wisconsin high school robotics teams competing in a national championship misstated the number of teams from the state and incorrectly stated that none made the playoffs. Eight Wisconsin teams, not seven, competed, including a team from Kenosha that advanced to the national playoffs. The Kenosha team, the E-Team E-Bots, is made up primarily of students from LakeView Technology Academy. It was seeded sixth, the best outcome of the eight Wisconsin teams.

Wisconsin high school robotics teams miss playoffs

The competition was tough. And despite a hard - and in one case close - fight, none of the high school teams from Wisconsin made it into the playoffs of the FIRST Robotics Championship in Atlanta Saturday.

An alliance of three teams - from Illinois, Michigan and California - won the championship after an eight-hour day of robotic games played by 340 teams at the Georgia Dome.

Seven teams from Wisconsin took their robots to Atlanta. Of them, the Milwaukee-area More Community Robotics Team went the furthest, ranking ninth in its division. But no other team picked More as its ally for the playoffs, so it was forced to remain on the sidelines. Teams in the top eight places get to choose two partner teams for the playoffs.

"We did fantastically well, except that we didn't get picked," Mike Wittman, leader of the More team, said by phone as he packed up after the games. "We thought we were worthy of getting picked - we won the regional championship in Minnesota. But you don't know why they don't pick you. So, oh well. We did everything we could and played the best game yet, and we're pretty satisfied."

More won five games, lost two. The team consisted of students from St. Thomas More High School as well as students from Oak Creek, Cudahy, Homestead and Greenfield high schools.

Other Wisconsin players were from Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Mukwonago, Appleton and two other teams from the Milwaukee area. One, the Marquette Hilltoppers, represented Marquette University High School and Divine Savior Holy Angels. The other, the Ultimate Protection Squad, included students from Rufus King and Bradley Tech high schools in Milwaukee.

For these 2009 games, high school students nationwide were asked to build robots pulling trailers. The challenge was for the opposing teams' robots to pick up balls and toss them in a trailer pulled by the other team's robot.

"We had a sort of rough time - one win, six losses," said Paul Jutrzonka, a Rufus King teacher who led the Ultimate Protection Squad. "The robot worked just fine. It did what it was supposed to do."

Jutrzonka, whose team had won the Midwest Regional in Chicago this spring, said everyone was nonetheless pleased with the results.

"We all played well," he said on the phone as the students dug into lasagna at the post-game party. "It's basically a life-changing experience that the kids go through, and we're all just participating and helping make this change. It's an amazing feat for them. These are the future problem-solvers of the world."